by Antoinnette Borbon
Santa Rosa is no stranger to gang-related crimes. As I sat through what will be yet another gang-related trial’s jury selection, it was nothing I have not heard before. It was merely a different location. I have covered a few prelims involving gang activity crimes and the infamous Wolfington trial. But in the words of the Honorable Kenneth Gnoss, the charges which involve gang enhancements still need to proven without reasonable doubt.
Gnoss explained to the jurors it is up to the DA’s office to prove their case by all of the evidence and it is not the responsibility of the defense. The prospective jurors had a few disagreements with the explanation. It was something I have never heard before and came from two prospective jurors. Two of the men on the jury panel had asked Judge Gnoss if the defendant would be testifying. He explained the defendant had the constitutional right not to testify. Both men told Gnoss they would have difficulty in deciding on a verdict if the defendant chose not testify himself. They went on to say they felt it would be hard to decide on a verdict if they were not able to listen to the defendant’s side of the story. Gnoss thanked them for their comments but asserted the defendant’s constitutional right.
Testifying as witnesses for the trial will be gang experts and the drug task force out of Sonoma County. On Wednesday, the jury selection process will resume and opening arguments may begin as early as the afternoon.
Below is an article I found about street gang activities and their history in Sonoma County:
In Sonoma County, Criminal Street Gangs are primarily made up of members claiming allegiance to either Northern or Southern California. Those claiming allegiance to Northern California consider themselves Norteños or Northerners. Those from Southern California – Sureños or Southerners.
Hispanic street gangs in their current form saw their genesis in the 1960s, in the California State Prison system. Urbanized Southern Hispanics came together for protection and to control the drug trade within the prison walls. The Southerners preyed upon the Northern farm workers who were seen as poorly educated “sod busters.” As a result, the Northerners banded together for protection from the Southerners and to run their own illegitimate businesses within the prison walls.
Southern gangs owe their loyalty to the Mexican Mafia – La EME. They took the color blue and the number 13 (M being the thirteenth letter of the alphabet). Sureño gangs are made up of primarily Hispanic but also some White members.
Northern gangs fall under the umbrella of the Nuestra Familia, or NF. In the prison system, inmates were issued either blue or red railroad style bandanas. As the Southerners had already taken the color blue, the Northerners took the only remaining color, red, and used it as a means of identification during prison assaults and riots. With N being the fourteenth letter of the alphabet, they also claimed the number 14 as one of their symbols. As the Norteños had to quickly build their membership to conflict with the Sureños, they decided to take in members of all races, as long as that person was dedicated to the Norteño cause.
The current North/South dividing line is somewhere between the Fresno and Bakersfield areas, although some investigators believe the line has moved North to San Jose. However, it should be noted that while Norteño gangs are nearly nonexistent in Southern California, Sureño gangs are active throughout both Northern and Southern California. There is a strong relationship between the activities of the street gangs and the prison gangs. Gang members incarcerated in the prison system can wield a great deal of power from their cells and will use the gang members on the street to engage in crimes that not only benefit the street gangs, but also those gang members in the prisons. These crimes can range from money making enterprises like drug dealing and robberies, to crimes like assaults and homicides that enforce gang rules and alter the power structure.
Here in Sonoma County, there is a nearly equal division of Norteño and Sureño gang members, usually hovering within a 100-200 member difference, or approximately 1,600 Norteños to 1,400 Sureños, the rest being Asian, Black, and White gangs.
Nice context article Antoinnette.
I second medwoman’s comment; good article!
Annette I don’t know if you live in Davis or how familiar with Davis you are, but are you aware of any signs that there may be efforts by gangs to get a more serious foothold in Davis? I’ve got a street-sense that gangs may have a toe-hold in some areas of Davis, but activity is pretty low-level and discrete (not a lot of swagger, ‘tude, hooded eyes or street-intimidation yet). Wonder what your sense is; and if you think Davis pd is doing a good job keeping it suppressed?
jimt
What specific areas of town do you feel may be affected ?
Some parts of east Davis and south Davis; including some areas where UCD or other college students occupy some (but not all) apartment units.
Medwoman, Fascinating. Thanks for this information.
The prisons ask an inmate to identify with a certain group when he/she arrives. Supposedly to keep rival gangs apart? Isn’t that an admission that the gangs are running the prison system? I know a Jewish man who did not want to be affiliated with any group or race. He was put with the people who refuse to ID, I think they were called “Others”? This was a few years a go. I wonder if the prisons still do that. It almost seems counter productive.
Antoinnette, sorry, I meant to say I agree with Medwoman.Good article.
[quote]The prisons ask an inmate to identify with a certain group when he/she arrives. Supposedly to keep rival gangs apart? Isn’t that an admission that the gangs are running the prison system?[/quote]
The prisons do not asking people to identify with a group. They as if the individual identifies with a group.
Semantics. So you’re probably aware, unless things have changed in the past few years, that if one refuses to identify with a group, there is much dialogue about that. It is not a yes/no question. Let’s just say they are persuaded to identify? Or has that changed?
I won’t just say they are persuaded with no factual basis to support the assumption.
jimt wrote:
> Some parts of east Davis and south Davis;
> including some areas where UCD or other college
> students occupy some (but not all) apartment units.
There are VERY few gang members living in apartments with UCD students and just like every other city in America Davis has most (of our small number of) gang members living in subsidized housing (just one week after New Harmony in South Davis opened the fence in front of the property facing I80 was tagged). Parents (of all races) that figure out a way to pay rent and feed their kids seem to usually figure out how to keep their kids out of gangs, while a large number of parents who have kids and and expect someone else to feed them and pay for a place for them to live don’t seem to care (or even notice) if their kids join a gang…
Because gangs are a direct result of the CA justice system’s shortcomings, I would not expect a rise in gang activity in Davis without a rise in Davis’ incarceration rates, and in populations of former prisoners.
An example may be the recent hate-crime case. If the prosecuted goes to prison, that young man will come out of a system which encourages allegiance to gangs on top of his having interpersonal issues that the sentence can fail to address.
I’m disappointed in the cited article’s lack of information about Sonoma’s gang history which consists of no more than a caption at the end of a banal list of CA gang facts which read like a handbook to identify gang associates in prison.
Here is an insightful article on CA prison practices, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/solitary-confinement-shane-bauer
It may be a bit tangential but I think it is worth sharing.
@gordonite….yes, there is certainly a whole lot more I could have written about…but my point was that “Gangs,” are not only a huge part of Yolo County but another as well. In fact, several of our state’s counties.
I am sure there are a lot of articles written in regards to them, and some of which may be a bit misinformed. I have spent some time interviewing a few ex-gang members and found that a lot of what is said is false. One day, if I can, I will put together a piece from these interviews, just cannot do it at the time.
I do appreciate your comment and apologize for your disapoinment, sure there is always going to be one who is dissappointed no matter what we write…just the way journalism goes.
My objective is to come up with something different to stop these kids from even joining and ending up within the prison system for the rest of their lives.
Is it reasonable to say that prison changes these kids? It is as if it gives them greater power of belonging..power of what they call, “respect,” and from my research into this matter, gives them the ability to be a part of organized crime right there on the inside of what is supposed to be a means of punishment…is it really? How is this reasonable? and how effective is it for adults coming out of prison not rehabilitated from these organizations? Once they have been put into the system as a known gang member, whether ex or not, they are still looked at as gang members, seen it happen over and over again in court. Not much of a chance is there? Some try hard at redeeming themselves and still end up on the wrong side of the law, seen this happen too. But do not misunderstand me, crimes have to be punishable, the law must be upheld, just more righteously. A way of betterment for the individual.
I believe there are things we can do, and must do in order to change our system, our prisons that are filled with gang members, youth offenders.
It is called “Restorative Justice,” and with luck on our side, we can get the word out in our upcoming event by the great speakers we have to talk about the program and it’s benefits thus far. I, personally am looking forward to hearing what we can do to help these kids.
We also had a speaker from the Burn Institute, an organization that helps juvenile justice while working together with probation, law enforcement and the DDA’s office. I look forward to being a part of that too…anything to help stop youths/adults, from ending up another gang statistic. I would like to see all parties involved in helping restore these kids.
Together, we can make a change..
@Medwoman, Jimt, JImmysdaughter..thank you for reading and the support.
As to your question about gang activity in Davis, yes, I have heard a few things but no real facts as of yet. I have been in this community for 32 years and have always deemed Davis to be a safe place to raise children with great schools supporting education of our children.
But as with anything and anywhere in life, the devil will find a way to creep in and ruin, destroy. Albiet, I am hopeful we can keep a close eye on things as a community and with the help of our law enforcement.
Positive things are happening!
It reminds me of a song of the late Michael Jackson, “Man in the mirror,” a song about first changing ourselves…if we do this, we may lead by example and possibly turn another’s life around.
Kindly…
“It reminds me of a song of the late Michael Jackson, “Man in the mirror,” a song about first changing ourselves…if we do this, we may lead by example and possibly turn another’s life around.”
Beautifully written.
Thank you…JimmysDaughter….you have been a longtime follower! I appreciate your comments!